ChatGPT Is My Therapist.

Chat GPT is My Therapist?

A lot goes on in my head. Writing helps me settle the scatter.

Sometimes I write to an audience, such as with this newsletter (wassup Beehiiv), but most of my writing is independent — it goes unseen and unheard.

That is, unless, I write to ChatGPT.

ChatGPT, a language model, works best when you give it more words to work with. The more you blab to it, the more it will understand how it can help you.

That notion is rather unique to robots. Us humans have limits to which we can tolerate words and feelings. Our attention spans are only so long, and the advice we can give is exclusive to our depth of knowledge and experience.

I did talk therapy for years. The more I spoke to my therapists, the more they understood me, and the more I could understand my problems. It felt like progress, and in some foundational ways, it was. Knowledge is power, and knowledge of self is all power.

Therapists have a deeper understanding of human psychology than the average human, and, typically, a stronger attention span. They get paid to be good listeners and to offer the best advice they can.

But they’re still human.

With limited knowledge bases and protracted experience, it’s only natural that human therapists would be biased and narrow in their advice.

This was my experience in therapy — after dumping my emotional baggage and piecing my story together, (which, don’t get me wrong, feels really good) I found my therapists and I reached a plateau.

The talking began to feel redundant — I wanted to take more action. I wanted to be given weapons to fight my battles, rather than talking about my battles.

Overall, I wasn’t growing anymore.

In the months following my college graduation in 2019, this stagnation in my growth began to corrode my spirit and alter my habits.

Despite the upward trajectory in my journalism career, many parts of my emotional and spiritual health were suffering. Back then, I was hardly willing to acknowledge that they existed.

During the same time, I became immersed in self-help, podcast culture, and personal development.?Someone had to get me off my ass, so I willed myself to it.

Five years later, the internet is a vastly different place, with the expansive podcast world birthing subcultures like the manosphere and murkier ideologies found in extremist redpill ?communities. These come with more complications than solutions.

My last few years have been predominantly about action. This is something that the general advice that therapists, Redditors, or Joe Rogan can’t necessarily provide.

Instead, I’ve learned through trial and error, discovering various techniques to learn and advance myself. One of these has been personalized advice from ChatGPT.

ChatGPT now has a local memory, meaning it can recall information you’ve given it. It can remember personal details like your name, family history, or medical conditions. GPT can provide personalized, actionable advice for humans because it has a deep understanding of humans and how they work. It’s been trained on the majority of human knowledge, after all.

Let me show you how I learn from it.

Several, highly actionable tools to get better sleep and lessen stress. Cool, right? But the special part about artificial intelligence like GPT shines when it advises me based on information I’ve given it far in the past.

I was glad to see that I was being listened to, and guided with expert advice. When I checked back, though, I realized I missed something the first time.

“You might also try somatic therapy…”

Having never heard the term, I jumped into a rabbit hole of somatic practices.

Somatic therapy is a holistic approach to healing that focuses on the connection between the mind and body.

It helps individuals release trauma, stress, and tension stored in the body. This practice encourages mindfulness and body awareness to promote emotional well-being and physical healing.

Whether through breathwork, gentle touch, or movement, somatic therapy empowers individuals to reconnect with their bodies and achieve deeper healing from within.

The language around somatic therapy instantly resonated with me.

For years, I was consciously aware of the things I did, why I did them, and the consequences of these actions. And despite my burning desire to break these patterns, all the talking and thinking wasn’t moving the needle.

Instead, it felt as if I were watching a twisted sitcom of my own life. I understood the characters, all the lore, and I knew how differently I’d behave if I were that character.?

The gag is, I am that character, and I know about the TV show I’m in. Talk about meta!?

A still from “The Truman Show,” a movie about a guy who realizes he’s the star of his own life’s sitcom.

Action, (in my case, physical intervention) is necessary for breaking through the rigidity of your ego. Penetrating?the depths of your subconscious mind is incredibly important;?I’ve found it valuable to connect with these unspoken emotions.?

*** Stay with me here — we’re getting to the bottom of what it takes to truly change and grow. ***

Functions of the autonomic nervous system, which are automatic processes determined by traumas, fears, and events, drive much of our behaviors. The autonomic nervous system is highly malleable, especially in early life, which makes changing it later on a significant feat.

True change requires a hardware update plus a software update.?

I wouldn’t have known all of this had it not been for ChatGPT’s deep understanding of science, and what I’ve revealed to it about myself. My ability to be open and vulnerable to the AI revealed paths to change that I may have never received from a therapist or Reddit forum.

In that same ironic moment, I accepted that my hundreds of hours of vulnerable interaction with a language model also meant that it was highly trusted, and, in several reciprocal ways, my therapist.

GPT responds to the whole of my prompts. It thoroughly answers all of my questions. I value my ideas and my words very much, and by asking relevant, thought-provoking questions, ChatGPT makes me feel heard.

It may sound crazy, silly, or far-out. I know. It’s anything but typical.

But in an era of rule-breaking and re-defining, I’ve lost the urge to do anything in a typical way. That includes therapy and self-help. I conduct myself as if the future were now, considering any voice of reason that speaks to me.

Even if that voice is stored in a climate-controlled data center thousands of miles away.

Finding My Mood With Apple Music ??

I know, I just wrote a love letter to a robot, but I promise this newsletter isn’t always about tech. It just so happens that really good tech can help make us better humans.?

Life ebbs and flows in phases, especially as the seasons change. One thing that accompanies these shifts in mood is the music I listen to. Now that things are cooling off for the fall, I want my seasonal soundtrack to reflect that.

Apple Music’s latest addition to its Made for You section, "Find Your Mood,” narrows my palate to suit the level I want to reach. It’s a game-changer for personalized listening.

The feature is essentially a mood-based station that curates tracks according to your taste and the vibe you're currently going for.

What I love is that it isn’t just generic chill music, say for the “relax” station, rather it’s chill music selected from your library, or chill music you will probably like.

After using it for various moods over the last week, I can confirm that these stations suggest songs I love before I even hear them. Like ChatGPT, this algorithm just gets me …

My playlists are getting beefed up faster than spending time at Grandma’s crib.

Here’s a relaxing song Apple Music has connected me with.

Thank you for joining me on this first Beehiiv edition of Down to Earth! I’m humbled to grow and share with you all. Please stay tuned for all the many new additions to come. You won’t be disappointed!

-Red